Morvern Callar (2002)
So, take all that into account before reading on, because - as usual - we're going to talk about the plot.
The movie opens at Christmas with Morvern finding her boyfriend has just killed himself, leaving her a note, several presents, money for a funeral, and an unpublished novel with instructions to submit it in his name. Instead, she leaves his body on the floor of her apartment and goes out drinking, eventually telling her best friend (and for all intents and purposes the only other significant character in the film), Lanna (played by Kathleen McDermott) that her boyfriend broke up with her and moved to another country.
Morvern goes about her life for a while, still without dealing with her boyfriend's body. Or the Christmas tree he's strewn beside, for that matter - she just leaves those as they are. It's not until after New Year's that she moves him to the tub, dismembers his body (don't worry if you're squeamish - they don't show anything aside from a little blood) and eventually buries the pieces.
She leaves the tree up a while longer, though.
The other thing she does is replace his name on the book with her own (his letter said he wrote it for her, but it's pretty clear this isn't what he had in mind), and mails it to the publisher he'd selected. Since she found alternate funeral arrangements, the funds he'd set aside for that purpose are freed up, so she decides to go on vacation to Spain, bringing Lanna along. Before they go, Lanna confesses that she'd had a fling with Morvern's boyfriend and offers to stay, but Morvern still takes her.
While vacationing, Morvern follows a beetle (the movie sort of implies she has an affinity for bugs - more on this later) into the hall, and she hears a man crying. He's just learned his mother has died, and she spends the night with him. Afterward, she flees the hotel, dragging a very confused Lanna to a village in the countryside. Soon they become lost and fight. During this section, Morvern tries telling Lanna that her boyfriend's actually dead, but her friend either doesn't hear or mistakes it as figurative.
While Lanna's asleep, Morvern leaves her with a sizable wad of money and wanders off alone, eventually finding her way to a seaside hotel, where she's gets in touch with the publishers she sent the manuscript to. They fly out to meet her and offer her a hundred thousand pounds, which she accepts.
She returns home, finds Lanna, and tells her she's leaving again. She asks Lanna to come with her, promising money won't be an issue, but Lanna refuses. At the end, Morvern leaves silently.
Boiling the movie down to a synopsis has the effect of making it sound a lot like Saltburn, with its similarly mysterious lead, but that's not really a good comparison. Despite the rather dark premise and actions of its title character, the movie isn't really driven by suspense. In fact, it's almost easier to continue describing the film in negatives: despite a great deal of nudity, it's not trying to be sexy. Despite its heightened reality, this isn't trying to be funny. Nor is this wallowing in Morvern's grief or guilt, though she does seem to grieve and really appears to care about Lanna, so she doesn't really come across as sociopathic either. It's basically a character study that refuses to actually study its character.
This seems like a good time to remind you I liked this a lot. The movie's elusive nature is a big part of its charm, assuming it's not a deal-breaker for you. While we never really get a definitive answer as to what's going on in Morvern's head, Morton's performance and Lynne Ramsay's direction convince us there's something worth exploring. I wanted to unravel the mystery at the core of her being, and by the time the movie closes, I'd come to appreciate the artistry behind the crafting of that mystery so much I didn't mind the lack of an answer.
Let's talk symbols, because these should help bridge us to Christmas. I mentioned Morvern's seeming affinity for bugs; in this context I don't think it's a stretch to connect those with death and potentially rebirth. A lot of imagery around Morvern evokes that subject. When she goes out on Christmas night, she dresses in black (this is absolutely a goth Christmas movie). Likewise, her hair is black, and she seems to be framed to resemble a raven at times. Towards the end, there's a particularly enigmatic shot in which she's surrounded by religious iconography, picks up a rose, then seems to teleport as the camera pans, reappearing as a mirror image of herself.
On a sort of archetypal level, the movie seems to be playing with connections between her and various European mythological figures. In a sort of counterintuitive way, the holidays may play into some of those themes. First, the cycle of life and death can be seen as as beginning and ending with the holidays, both due to the solstice and New Year (I don't think it's coincidental she waits until after the New Year to dispose of her boyfriend's body). Religious imagery likewise has connections to Christmas, of course.
In addition, the movie makes interesting use of the Christmas lights on the tree in her apartment. As I said earlier, this is where she finds the body. The room is almost always dark, so the lights are extremely memorable. They're always blinking slowly, with a timing that seems to echo a heartbeat. They stick around for quite a while, and even when they're gone, the movie references them by having a couple club scenes mimic the timing and color pallet. This image sort of becomes burned into the viewer's mind (and presumably Morvern's, as well).
The strategic presence and absence of music is also significant. One of her boyfriend's Christmas gifts was a mix tape, and his note tells her the music, like the novel, are hers. The club sequences play with this, connecting back both visually and auditorily to the body. Christmas, in this context, is a lingering memory - the movie never really tells us if that's a gift or a curse.
Obviously, you've also got the holiday doing conventional storytelling chores, such as heightening the visual impact of the suicide through contrast and drawing the viewer's attention to being left alone at Christmas. I should note, the holidays occupy about the first half hour, with the timeline growing fuzzy afterward. Still, their impact and significance would make this a Christmas movie in my book (and certainly a great potential double-feature with White Reindeer, which starts with a similar premise but spins it in a wildly different direction).
I implied earlier this is the kind of movie a lot of people will find frustrating, and I empathize with that reaction. It wasn't that long ago I'd have responded the same way, but now... I kind of love this sort of thing. It's weird, engrossing, and intentionally off-putting in the best way possible, inviting the viewer to watch and question what we're seeing. It's the kind of thing that would fail miserably if not grounded by great filmmaking and a great performance, but fortunately it offers both. I enthusiastically recommend it and apologize in advance to anyone who walks away rolling their eyes.
Comments
Post a Comment